Geomagnetism Program research plan, 2020–2024
Jeffrey J. Love, Anna Kelbert, Benjamin S. Murphy, E. Joshua Rigler, Kristen A. Lewis
2020, Circular 1469
The Geomagnetism Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) monitors geomagnetic field variation through operation of a network of observatories across the United States and its territories, and it pursues scientific research needed to estimate and assess geomagnetic and geoelectric hazards. Over the next five years (2020–2024 inclusive) and in...
Habitat suitability and ecological associations of two non-native ungulate species on the Hawaiian island of Lanai
Steve C. Hess, Lucas Berio Fortini, Christina Leopold, Jacob Muise, Jonathan Sprague
2020, Hawaii Cooperative Studies Unit Technical Report Series 91
The ability to effectively manage game species for specific conservation objectives is often limited by the scientific understanding of their distribution and abundance. This is especially true in Hawai‘i where introduced game mammals are poorly studied and have low value relative to native species in other states. We modeled the...
Testing a new passive acoustic recording unit to monitor wolves
Shannon Barber-Meyer, Vicente Palacios, Barbara Marti‐Domken, Lori Schmidt
2020, Wildlife Society Bulletin (44) 590-598
As part of a broader trial of noninvasive methods to research wild wolves (Canis lupus) in Minnesota, USA, we explored whether wolves could be remotely monitored using a new, inexpensive, remotely deployable, noninvasive, passive acoustic recording device, the AudioMoth. We tested the efficacy of AudioMoths in detecting wolf howls and...
Movement dynamics of nonnative Burbot in the upper Green River system and implications for management
Tucker A. Brauer, Michael C. Quist, Darren T. Rhea, Troy W. Laughlin, Erik Waring
2020, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (40) 1161-1173
Burbot Lota lota were illegally introduced to the Green River, Wyoming, in the mid-1990s and pose a threat to recreational fisheries and native fish conservation. Although much is known about Burbot population dynamics, little is known about their movement patterns. Our objectives were to describe the movement dynamics of Burbot in the...
Ontogenetic diet shifts with potential ramifications for resource competition in a kokanee – Mysis diluviana system
Zachary B. Klein, Michael C. Quist, Andrew M. Dux, Matthew P. Corsi
2020, Article
Ontogenetic shifts represent important transitions that can influence how fish interact with their environment. However, ontogenetic shifts are rarely placed into a population context due to the difficulty of incorporating the vagaries of size-mediated interactions. As such, we evaluated the role of ontogenetic shifts in diet as they relate to...
Littoral sediment from rivers: Patterns, rates and processes of river mouth morphodynamics
Jonathan A. Warrick
2020, Frontiers in Earth Science (8)
Rivers provide important sediment inputs to many littoral cells, thereby replenishing sand and gravel of beaches around the world. However, there is limited information about the patterns and processes of littoral-grade sediment transfer from rivers into coastal systems. Here I address these information gaps by examining topographic and...
Assessment of water quality and fecal contamination sources at Hook Pond, East Hampton, New York
Shawn C. Fisher, Brendan A. McCarthy, Christopher M. Kephart, Dale W. Griffin
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5071
SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Village of East Hampton, New York, conducted a 1-year study from August 2017 to August 2018 to provide data necessary to improve understanding of the sources of nutrients and pathogens to Hook Pond watershed to allow for possible mitigation or reduction of...
Water Quality of groundwater used for public supply in principal aquifers of the western United States
Celia Z. Rosecrans, MaryLynn Musgrove
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5078
Groundwater provides nearly half of the Nation’s drinking water. As the Nation’s population grows, the importance of (and need for) high-quality drinking-water supplies increases. As part of a national-scale effort to assess groundwater quality in principal aquifers (PAs) that supply most of the groundwater used for public supply, the...
Food matrix reference materials for hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur stable isotope-ratio measurements: Collagens, flours, honeys, and vegetable oils
Arndt Schimmelmann, Haiping Qi, Philip J.H. Dunn, Federica Camin, Luana Bontempo, Doris Potocnik, Nives Ogrinc, Simon Kelly, James Carter, Aiman Abrahim, Lauren T Reid, Tyler B. Coplen
2020, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (68) 10852-10864
An international project developed, quality-tested, and measured isotope–delta values of 10 new food matrix reference materials (RMs) for hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur stable isotope-ratio measurements to support food authenticity testing and food provenance verification. These new RMs, USGS82 to USGS91,...
elfgen: A new instream flow framework for rapid generation and optimization of flow-ecology relations
Joseph D Kleiner, Elaina M Passero, Robert W. Burgholzer, Jennifer L. Krstolic, Durelle R Scott
2020, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (6) 949-966
Effective water resource management requires practical, data‐driven determination of instream flow needs. Newly developed, high‐resolution flow models and aquatic species databases provide enormous opportunity, but the volume of data can prove challenging to manage without automated tools. The objective of this study was to develop a...
Effect of fluvial discharges and remote non-tidal residuals on compound flood forecasting in San Francisco Bay
Babak Tehranirad, Liv M. Herdman, Kees Nederhoff, Li H. Erikson, Rob Cifelli, Greg Pratt, Michael Leon, Patrick L. Barnard
2020, Water (12)
Accurate and timely flood forecasts are critical for making emergency-response decisions regarding public safety, infrastructure operations, and resource allocation. One of the main challenges for coastal flood forecasting systems is a lack of reliable forecast data of large-scale oceanic and watershed processes and the combined effects of multiple hazards, such...
2020 Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation—Remote sensing satellite compendium
Shankar N. Ramaseri Chandra, Jon Christopherson, Kimberly A. Casey
2020, Circular 1468
The Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) is a collaboration between five Federal agencies that are major users and producers of satellite land remote sensing data. In recent years, the JACIE group has observed ever-increasing numbers of remote sensing satellites being launched. This rapidly growing wave of new systems creates...
Detection and measurement of land subsidence and uplift using Global Positioning System surveys and interferometric synthetic aperture radar, Coachella Valley, California, 2010–17
Michelle Sneed, Justin T. Brandt
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5093
Groundwater has been a major source of agricultural, recreational, municipal, and domestic supply in the Coachella Valley of California since the early 1920s. Pumping of groundwater resulted in groundwater-level declines as large as 50 feet (ft) or 15 meters (m) by the late 1940s. Because of concerns that the...
Science to support water-resource management in the upper Roanoke River watershed
James S. Webber, John D. Jastram
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3040
Flooding, excessive sedimentation, and high bacteria counts are among the most challenging water resource issues affecting the Upper Roanoke River watershed. These issues threaten public safety, impair the watershed’s living resources, and threaten drinking water supplies, though mitigation is costly and difficult to manage.Urban development, land disturbance, and changing climatic...
GeMS (Geologic Map Schema)—A standard format for the digital publication of geologic maps
U.S. Geological Survey National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program
2020, Techniques and Methods 11-B10
IntroductionThis report describes and defines GeMS (for Geologic Map Schema), a new standardized database schema—that is, a database design—for the digital publication of geologic maps. It originally was intended for geologic mapping funded by the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program of the U.S. Geological Survey, but its use can be...
Resource use by American black bear in suburbia: A landholder step selection approach
Farshid S. Ahrestani, Mark A. Ternent, Matthew J. Lovallo, W. David Walter
2020, Human-Wildlife Interactions (14) 216-227
Range expansion of American black bear (Ursus americanus; bear) and residential development has resulted in a growing presence of bear in suburbia. Suburban landscapes exhibiting patchworks of variable-sized parcels and habitats and owned by landowners with diverse values, can create large areas of suitable habitats with limited public access. These...
Social Values for Ecosystem Services, version 4.0 (SolVES 4.0)—Documentation and user manual
Benson C. Sherrouse, Darius J. Semmens
2020, Techniques and Methods 7-C25
The geographic information system tool, Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES), was developed to incorporate quantified and spatially explicit measures of social values into ecosystem service assessments. SolVES 4.0 provides an open-source version of SolVES, which was designed to assess, map, and quantify the social values of ecosystem services. Social...
Living with wildfire in the Squilchuck Drainage - Chelan County, Washington: 2020 data report
Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Patricia A. Champ, Jon Riley, Christopher M. Barth, Colleen Donovan, James R. Meldrum, Carolyn Wagner
2020, Data Report RMRS-RN-87
Research on the social dimensions of wildfire provides opportunities to understand how communities and the people who reside in those communities interact with the threat of wildfire. Overall, three findings from this project were particularly noteworthy. First, household survey results indicate that residents in the Squilchuck Drainage, Chelan County, Washington...
Integrated hydro-terrestrial modeling: Development of a national capability
David P. Lesmes, Jessica Moerman, Tom Torgeson, Bob Vallario, Timothy D. Scheibe, Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, Harry L. Jenter, Ronald L. Bingner, Laura Condon, Brian Cosgrove, Carlos Del Castillo, Charles W Downer, John Eylander, Michael N. Fienen, Nels Frazier, David Gochis, Dave Goodrich, Judson Harvey, Joseph D. Hughes, David Hyndman, John M. Johnston, Forrest Melton, Glenn E. Moglen, David Moulton, Laura K. Lautz, Rajbir Parmar, Brenda Rashleigh, Patrick Reed, Katherine Skalak, Charuleka Varadharajan, Roland J. Viger, Nathalie Voisin, Mark Wahl
2020, Report
Water is one of our most important natural resources and is essential to our national economy and security. Multiple federal government agencies have mission elements that address national needs related to water. Each water-related agency champions a unique science and/or operational mission focused on advancing a portion of the nation’s...
Cottonwoods, water, and people-Integrating analysis of tree rings with observations of elders from the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming
Shannon M. McNeeley, Jonathan M. Friedman, Tyler A. Beeton, Richard D. Thaxton
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1072
We assessed the history of flow and riparian ecosystem change along the Wind River using cottonwood tree-ring data, streamgage records, historical temperature and precipitation data, drought indices, and local observations and Traditional Ecological Knowledge from elders of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming....
Science in action or science inaction? Evaluating the implementation of "best available science" in hydropower relicensing
Sarah K. Vogel, Jessica S. Jansujwicz, Carly C. Sponarski, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2020, Energy Policy (143)
Over the next two decades, half of all hydropower projects in the USA will require relicensing by the Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC). Relicensing proceedings invoke a range of informational sources and agency regulators are tasked with using the “best available science” (BAS) to make informed decisions about hydropower operations and...
Genetic diversity targets and indicators in the CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework must be improved
Sean M. Hoban, Michael W. Bruford, Josephine D’Urban Jackson, Margarida Lopes-Fernandes, Myriam Heuertz, Paul A. Hohenlohe, Per Sjogren-Gulve, Gernot Segelbacher, Cristiano Vernesi, Sally Aitken, Laura D. Bertola, Paulette Bloomer, Martin Breed, Hernando Rodriguez-Correa, W. Chris Funk, Catherine E. Grueber, Margaret Hunter, Rodolfo Jaffe, Libby Liggins, Joachim Mergeay, Farideh Moharrek, David O'Brien, Rob Ogden, Clarisse Palma-Silva, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Jennifer Pierson, Uma Ramakrishnan, Murielle Simo-Droissart, Naoki Tani, Lisette Waits, Linda Laikre
2020, Biological Conservation (248)
The 196 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will soon agree to a post-2020 global framework for conserving the three elements of biodiversity (genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity) while ensuring sustainable development and benefit sharing. As the most significant global conservation policy mechanism, the new CBD framework has...
Distance effects of gas field infrastructure on pygmy rabbits in southwestern Wyoming
Stephen S. Germaine, Timothy Assal, Aaron Freeman, Sarah K. Carter
2020, Ecosphere (11)
As domestic energy development activity continues in the western United States, wildlife conservation planning in affected regions is increasingly important. The geologic basins where oil and gas energy exploration is occurring are primarily sagebrush steppe rangelands. Sagebrush steppe habitats may support more than 20 vertebrate species of conservation concern, and...
Use of boosted regression trees to quantify cumulative instream flow resulting from curtailment of irrigation in the Sprague River basin, Oregon
Tamara M. Wood
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5130
A boosted regression trees (BRT) approach was used to estimate the amount by which streamflow is increased when irrigation is regulated (curtailed) upstream of a streamgage on the Sprague River in southern-central Oregon. The BRT approach differs from most other approaches that require baseline conditions for comparison, where those baseline...
Calibrating environmental DNA metabarcoding to conventional surveys for measuring fish species richness
Mary E McElroy, Terra L Dressler, Georgia C Titcomb, Emily A Wilson, Kristy Deiner, Tom L. Dudley, Erika J. Eliason, Nathan T Evans, Steven D Gaines, Kevin D. Lafferty, Gary A Lamberti, Yiyuan Li, David M. Lodge, Milton S. Love, Andrew R. Mahon, Michael E Pfrender, Mark A Renshaw, Kimberly A Selkoe, Christopher L. Jerde
2020, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (8)
The ability to properly identify species present in a landscape is foundational to ecology and essential for natural resource management and conservation. However, many species are often unaccounted for due to ineffective direct capture and visual surveys, especially in aquatic environments. Environmental DNA metabarcoding is an approach that overcomes low...
